Now that the guys over at Exploring the medieval hunt (an awesome blog that I recommend massively) have made medieval winter gear a trending topic, I’ll throw in pictures and experiences from Merry Swan’s winter outing to Hiidenhirvenhiihto, a primitive skiiing and archery competition.

Our team (with some extras) came in third! And those of us that were tasked with cheering on the brave skiers – we had a chance to test our winter gear in a crisp -8C and beautiful sunny weather.

The most problematic spot when it comes to staying warm: feet. In this nearly explicit picture, oozing with medieval erotica, you can see what we wore on our feet. Knee-high woolen hose, woolen needlebound socks and shoes that were big enough. Mervi had some lovely red boots and I had old, rather beaten up shoes.

The thing is that medieval shoes have thin leather soles, and the cold always creesp through. Pattens aka wooden tie-on soles would help, but wearing them on ice and in a little island full of rocks etc – would be classified as self-harming. This is why we were constantly on the lookout for something to stand on: a little dry grass, a ski – and even a blanket (which is what we are standing on in the picture)

When watching the skiing we were kept warm by a sheepskin and the sun. And needlebound mittens!

In these pictures you can see my new cloak, which is actually more of a summertime cloak. It’s made of a medium weight wool twill, so it is slightly airy and light. It falls nicely and is not too heavy. It’s a simple half circle which stays in place with one brooch. And I can have the cloak sit differently depending on where and how I set the brooch. And it si wearable! Seriously, this is the FIRST cloak I do not want to bury into the nearest bog after 15 minutes of wearing it. It doesn’t get in the way and it doesn’t try to strangle me. The madder-red wool is from Tippet.